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Clinical Informatician Process for Updating Data

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Chris Wood edited this page Apr 29, 2024 · 3 revisions

The NHS BSA releases new data regarding dispensed prescription items each month via the Open Data Portal. We use this data to inform and update our OpenPrescribing tools and measures. A Clinical Informatician will lead on completing the following steps:

  1. Lookout for new data on the Open Data Portal - new data is normally added around the middle of each month. If you are an ePACT2 user, you will receive an email announcing when new data is available in ePACT2 – the Open Data Portal typically makes the underlying data available within 1-2 working days of that email.

  2. Tag Peter Inglesby in Slack on #general to notify him when the data is available and ask him to start importing it. Peter should let you know when the import is done, or you can check #technoise for notifications when it is completed.

  3. Check that the new data looks sensible on OpenPrescribing; there should be no extreme unexpected changes. Do this by looking at a few dashboards for National level data, and CCG level data for an area you are familiar with. If the data looks unusual, discuss with the wider team to consider whether there could be any bugs in the latest import.

  4. Use the tag tech-support in Slack to ask that email notifications are sent to OpenPrescribing users using the workflow in this sysadmin issue.

  5. Send a tweet from the OpenPrescribing Twitter account (login via Bitwarden) to let followers know that the new data is available, and remind them to subscribe for custom email alerts. A variation on the following Tweet can be used.

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